‘A Love Letter to the City,’ Radio Host Turned Filmmaker Creates Toronto-Inspired Hip-Hop Film

Toronto, summer and hip-hop are the three words that filmmaker Reza Dahya used to describe his next project BOX CUTTERa moving and optimistic independent film dedicated to the city.

The story follows an aspiring local rapper, who also works at a factory unpacking boxes (hence the name, BOX CUTTER), on a mission to recover his stolen laptop containing all his music before a life-changing meeting with a major music producer, who is modeled after Toronto-bred hit icon Boi-1da.

Alongside hip-hop at the forefront are themes of friendship and overcoming the fear of failure, a feeling Dahya says she knows all too well.

Dahya’s passion for music runs deep. With co-creator Ty Harper, he worked to put Toronto’s underrated hip-hop community on the radar with his mid-2000s radio show “OTA (On the Air) Live!” on the now-defunct urban station FLOW 93.5. The transition from hosting and producing to filmmaking was a big change that he called an “emotional rollercoaster,” and Dahya says he channeled those same feelings into the film’s main character.

“In our show, “OTA Live!”, we created every element – ​​every sound and every song we chose. That was our creation, but it’s still like a layer removed from being a real artist. And then in my transition, I finally discovered that I can bring all my skills together into this thing called film, and then I can share something that I want to say personally,” Dahya told Now Toronto on Wednesday.

“And that is very scary and frightening. Because I love and respect the art form and music and culture so much, it’s scary to think that I would put out something that was mediocre or that wasn’t well received, or that doesn’t help people in some way. So our character deals with it in his own way.”

Describing the film as a “love letter” to Toronto, Dahya promises to avoid clichéd topics often incorporated into racialized hip-hop films, such as violence, drugs, poverty and the idea of ​​“leaving the hood.” Instead, he promised to highlight the city’s abundant vibrancy and cultural richness, which is often taken for granted and ignored on a global scale.

“I truly believe that these types of stories are real and important and should be told. But they are not the only stories,” he said.

“One of the main things for me was to showcase Toronto as an incredible place. It is full of so much culture, life, energy, art and community. A lot of people know the city, but haven’t seen it yet… So, it’s a love letter in the sense of saying: ‘Hey, world, it’s us’. And for all the Drake and The Weeknd fans in the world who might know our city, here’s a look at it from a different perspective.”

Dahya says BOX CUTTER is essential for Toronto audiences, particularly given the lack of Canadian representation on the big screen. He says growing up there was often a struggle for voices in the city to be heard. With this film, he aims to instill and restore value to the city for future generations to admire.

“Seeing us on screen is always important. I think in Toronto, even though we are Canadians, we have a lot of self-esteem issues. We all grew up with American media and Canadian movies, TV shows and music had a really hard time competing with it…it kind of did its work on us. Sometimes it’s hard to find pride in Toronto. It’s better now, but definitely in my time to come, it was a very difficult thing to combat,” he said.

“It’s important to showcase the city and the people who live there as many times as we can, in as many formats as possible. We should have 20 BOX CUTTER types of films now… I feel like what we have at home is so special and so beautiful. It’s important to me to provide something where kids who were like me – discovering music, hip-hop and culture – now have examples of that in their hometown.”

The film is set to premiere at the 24th Reelworld Film Festival + Summit on October 26th. The independent festival, which screens more than 32 films this year, is the oldest organization for Black, Indigenous, Asian and people of color in the Canadian Screen Industries.

Dahya says he’s looking forward to the premiere, hoping Torontonians can see a piece of themselves in the film, and also says showing it in the city is “the right option.”

“It’s just going to be a celebration,” he said.

“Our film has a very happy vibe, with a lot of love in every frame. You will leave with a smile on your face. And so to celebrate that at Reelworld, I think it’s really going to mean a lot. It feels right, it feels like home.”